Police in Japan capture suspected gunman after hostage drama at post office

First responders outside the post office in Warabi city, Saitama prefecture, north of Tokyo (Kyodo News via AP)

Police in Japan have ended an eight-hour stand-off with a gunman at a post office by capturing the suspect after two hostages were freed safely – an attack authorities said could be related to an earlier shooting at a hospital.

The man had entered the post office with a gun in Warabi, north of Tokyo, about an hour after the hospital shooting in which two people were wounded in the nearby city of Toda.